Hundreds of Jews Returning to Stalingrad and Kursk to Aid in Rebuilding Cities

Three-hundred Jewish families who were evacuated from Stalingrad about a year and a half ago are now en route to that destroyed city to help in the task of reconstruction, according to information reaching here today, They are traveling together with 2,000 Russian and Ukrainian evacuees who will also help to rebuild the demolished buildings and restore the city to normalcy.

Only adults without children and people with trades whose skills are needed to rebuild the town and farmers who will be able to cultivate the fields of Stalingrad province for Spring plowing are returning now. Among the Jewish families are not only former residents of Stalingrad, but also many who were driven from their homes in Moldavia, the Ukraine and Lithuania by the German troops and who were evacuated to towns along the Volga which subsequently also fell to the Nazis.

In Kursk, which was liberated from the Nazis during the Russian offensive which took Kharkov, and which is now again under attack by German troops, hundreds of Jewish men and women are working at repairing the ravages left by the Nazis, another report says. Communal restaurants to feed the emaciated population have been opened and two Jews who escaped from German-held territory have started manufacturing soap. Many Jews who were evacuated to the Saratov province along the Volga have now returned to Kursk.